


Seahorse

by zeerogue



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Fluff and Smut, Seahorse AU, kyungmyeon, kyungmyun, sudo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2018-11-01 10:24:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10919898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeerogue/pseuds/zeerogue
Summary: If you love something, set it free, and in return, it will bring true love to thee.





	Seahorse

**Seahorse**

  
  


Faraway on an Eastern shore, an angel took form in the shape of a seahorse. This seahorse had wandered far on a journey for love. As the moon, like a gentle mother, pulled the water back into the mysterious womb of the deep blue sea, the seahorse found itself stranded in a small pool of rock and sand with other friends of the sea just as unfortunate, but not as confused as the seahorse. They seemed perfectly content to adjust to the ocean now transformed into a small pool, but there was no mate and therefore no love for the seahorse.

  
  


Down the shore a boy's pale feet made toe crowned prints in the white gold of the early morning sand, swinging a pail in his hand. He was not quite a boy really, but not quite a man, stature still small, but hair growing where he rather it not and dreams of the captain's younger son tugging at his lower body late at night. A red shovel was stuffed in his back pocket slipping out from the strain the boy's pants, bought only months before, had on his hips and bottom. It wasn't fat, he promised and his father agreed serving him another round of clam noodle soup. It was because he was growing even if his pant legs always stayed three centimeters too long. He hoped it was muscle and the softness on his stomach would develop into the milky white valleys on the captain's younger son's stomach. Or at least the soft curves his father said his mother had, the kind other girls might call fat out of jealousy, but men loved.

  
  


His name was Kyungsoo.

  
  


If he wasn't tired, Kyungsoo woke with the sun and hurried out the back door of his father's seaside restaurant to collect seashells when the tide went down. He made sure his toes didn't touch the crystal water reflecting the pink and blue-gray sky. He had never let them touch the sea, not since he had heard the story of his mother and the giant abalone that had swallowed her when he was still a baby. It was a fantastical story to cover up the mundane fact she had drowned while diving as a woman of the sea, Kyungsoo knew, but the image had been burned into his brain and now laid like an ugly white scar on his memory.

  
  


Kyungsoo collected the shells and sold the prettiest ones to the Chinese family three houses down. The youngest son liked to make jewelry out of them and present them to the young doctor who had come from China to replace their retired one. Of course he kept the rare ones for himself. He hurried along the shore, picking up only what caught his eye. He knew the most amazing treasures laid around the pools where he often caught his lunch, and if there happened to be a rarity, his father would let him cook it for the captain. They always got a free crate of fish or crabs if the captain liked it and both sons would smile a heartwarming genuine smile that had Kyungsoo scurrying to hide into the kitchens as they left then be accused of being rude.

  
  


The third pool Kyungsoo searched held hostage the lovelorn seahorse. At first he reached in for a small octopus and then again for clams. His fingers just happened by the small mouth of the s shaped fish. He jumped back and stared at his fingers then got on his hands and knees and peered into the pool. The seahorse shrunk back at the sight of his first human, full cheeked and wide eyed, but then the human smiled like a young babe and the seahorse wished he could return the expression, fins fluttering him close to the surface and his heart growing wings and trying to reach the bright eyes of the human boy.

  
  


Kyungsoo, unaware that he had captured the heart of a creature, a heart as small as his finger tip, emptied his bucket, ignoring perfectly in shape sand dollars and vibrantly colored conch shells to capture the small funny looking fish. For a split second, he thought to send the little seahorse back out to sea, but he could see the sails of the captain's ship being raised in the distance. The little guy would be caught in the nets, perhaps, if he did. Could you eat seahorses? Kyungsoo did not believe so and the seahorse would not have cared if this human did. To be devoured meant being able to touch his human intimately.

  
  


The seahorse was carried with both of Kyungsoo's hands gently back to the hut behind his father's restaurant where he spent most of his days alone if not called out to help. He found an empty tank where his father kept freshly caught fish overnight and cleaned it then filled it with salt water and the chemical treatments he had learned to do taking care of the fresh catches with his father. Easing the pail into a tipping angle, he let the seahorse swim out and into its new home, half the size of the pool he had been caught in.

  
  


The seahorse had no qualms with this space. It flapped its small fins closer to Kyungsoo and pressed its mouth against the glass where the blurred image of the human swam not understanding why he couldn't swim farther. It deemed the hard glass with his boy's face was the system in which he would get to touch his boy and so floated there even as days passed and the tank began to fill with other trinkets to keep him happy. The seahorse was perfectly content as long as his boy was in the room.

  
  


Kyungsoo's father had agreed for him to keep the seahorse as long as it was kept in Kyungsoo's small room, now only housing his bed, a dresser and the seahorse. He worried over the s shaped fish. It never seemed to move from the front glass panel until it was fed. It swam back and forth following Kyungsoo, and when he bent down and tapped the glass, the sea horse tapped back.

  
  


The captain's youngest son appeared a few days later. The cuffs of his white shirt were stained with fish blood and there was dust on his milky white skin. It was around the time when they cut the bigger fish on the docks. Kyungsoo frowned when he entered without a knock or previously mentioned self invite. Kyungsoo straightened himself from the tank and ignored the fluttering in his stomach with the captain's youngest son walked up to him and patted his head.

  
  


“Hello, Kyungsoo,” he greeted.

  
  


“Junmyeon hyung,” Kyungsoo greeted back.

  
  


Junmyeon walked past him and flopped onto Kyungsoo's bed, booted feet lifted over the end board. The captain's son was not a tall man, but even he could not fit Kyungsoo's bed comfortably, a child's bed that Kyungsoo could still fit himself flat. “I heard you had a pet,” he said.

  
  


Kyungsoo turned to the tank. “I'm worried. It keeps following me around. I think it hates me.”

  
  


Junmyeon chuckled. “I doubt it hates you. Animals either love you or fear you. Maybe it likes you.”

  
  


Kyungsoo placed his finger to the glass. The seahorse swam over to it. He smiled and turned to Junmyeon. “I hope he does.”

  
  


They shared a smile, but Kyungsoo's soon morphed into a opened mouthed expression of wonderment staring into Jummyeon's sparkling eye smile. “Why are you here?”

  
  


Junmyeon lowered his feet and sat up on Kyungsoo's bed. “To eat with you of course.”

  
  


“You have plenty of food at your home. Your cooks makes entrees that my father could never dream of making.”

  
  


“I think your food tastes better, though. It's never perfect,” he said standing up and coming over to Kyungsoo.

  
  


Kyungsoo frowned. “What if I want to eat in the restaurant?”

  
  


“My father has a long haul to take care of tonight, which means your father will be busy restocking fish.”

  
  


“Won't your mother be expecting you for supper?”

  
  


Junmyeon looked away, nose twitching in barely covered discuss. “My _stepmother_ is currently entertaining my brother.”

  
  


Kyungsoo bowed his head. Kyungsoo had always been playmates with the captain's sons. They lost their mothers to the sea in the same year. Unlike Kyungsoo's father (perhaps because he was too busy or because there was no replacement), the captain had remarried when Junmyeon's elder brother was Junmyeon's age. The wife was only seven years older than the son. Rumors of her affair with the captain's elder son only buzzed in Kyungsoo's and Junmyeon's ears.

  
  


“Please, Kyungsoo, I don't want to eat alone.”

  
  


Kyungsoo turned to the little seahorse. It fluttered and stared at him with glossy trusting eyes. He had both rescued and captured the fish. He wondered if he was happy? How would he know? What could he do to make it happier? Kyungsoo sighed and turned back to Junmyeon.

  
  


“Fine, but I only managed a small octopus and we have rice.

  
  


Junmyeon chuckled and ruffled Kyungsoo's hair. “Thank you, Kyungsoo. Oh, have you gotten taller?”

  
  


Kyungsoo's eyes widened. “No? My pants are still the same length.”

  
  


Junmyeon cocked his head to the side. “You're thirteen now, right? My hyung told me if you masturbate alot, you look older.”

  
  


Red brushed Kyungsoo's cheeks and he stared at the floor, stomach fluttering like it did on the nights the boy's face that stood before him visited his dreams.

  
  


“You don't talk to the girls, have you gotten your first kiss yet?”

  
  


“No...n-no, why would I?” Kyungsoo defended.

  
  


“It's not a big deal, just wondering. We haven't talked in awhile, how about you look at me when I talk to you, huh?” Junmyeon said in a gentle voice.

  
  


Kyungsoo lifted his head wondering if he had seemed disrespectful to the older boy. His face was suddenly inches from Junmyeon's and before he could move back, a quick peck was pressed to his lips by a grinning Junmyeon.

  
  


“Your lips are thick and kissable, it would be a shame if you didn't get your first kiss early,” he said.

  
  


Kyungsoo blinked and only understood what had happened with the raging tapping of the seahorse against the glass trying to get at the other human you kept touching his boy.

  
  


“H-hey, who said I wanted it from you?” Kyungsoo yelled and started to push Junmyeon out of his room.

  
  


“I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” the captain's son apologized while laughing. “You're just so cute I want to tease you.”

  
  


“Don't tease the person who's going to feed you!”

  
  


Junmyeon left to the kitchen of the hut and the seahorse was the only one left to witness his boy curl up on the floor pressing his fingers to his lips with that baby bright smile that had captured its pinky sized heart.

  
**★**

 

The seahorse stayed happily captive in the tank of his boy for four years. It watched Kyungsoo slowly grow, legs getting longer and pants getting smaller. It always wondered why his boy never just walked about on the two long fins bare from obstructing articles since they always seemed to annoy him always either too big or too small. The seahorse watched as Kyungsoo reached the height of the captain's son who had looked so tall only a couple of years ago, now a grown man. It watched all of this never once realizing how its own scales seemed to gray and that more and more food seemed to make it to the bottom of the tank before his stomach.

 

It had lived a long life in love with its boy.

 

Kyungsoo noticed, however. He noticed everyday, and everyday he woke up with his heart pumping adrenaline into his system wondering if he would see the s shaped fish floating upon the surface of the tank. It was no different this morning, with the soft sunrise raining rays through his translucent curtain and into the room, warming his bare back as he tapped on the glass of the seahorse's tank. The seahorse only kissed at his finger, struggling to stay in one spot.

 

“Hey little guy, you're getting old aren't you,” Kyungsoo said and sighed. A boy at his school had a dog since elementary who died a few years ago. He wondered if this was how he felt before it happened. Perhaps this was why Kyungsoo never wanted a pet before and to say the seahorse was a pet was strange to him. The seahorse was more an unwilling (at least from Kyungsoo's perspective) observer of his growing up, going from an awkward child who dirtied his bed involuntarily to images of the captain's younger son to a young man who dirtied his hand in the shower before bed imaging things that made him blush when the seahorse stared at him once back in the room.

 

There was a knock on his bedroom door. Kyungsoo didn't bother standing, knowing the only one who knocked on his door instead of the hut door was Junmyeon. The captain's son, now an adult with all the white washboard muscle, though on the short side, and still an angelic smile gracing his face, entered the room. He moved to crouch next to Kyungsoo and looked into the tank as well, reaching a finger up to tap the glass making the seahorse float back angrily, but much slower than usual.

 

“He looks tired,” Junmyeon said.

 

“He's old,” Kyungsoo responded and turned around, sliding down to lean his back against the table the tank rested on.

 

Junmyeon turned around as well. “It's been almost five years. I've read...they don't live much longer than that.”

 

Kyungsoo gripped his sleeping pant trousers. “I know, I've read too, but what do I do about it?”

 

Junmyeon stood and grabbed the sheet off Kyungsoo's bed wrapping it around the younger man, tying a knot around his neck and lightly slapping Kyungsoo's soft cheeks. “You looked cold.”

 

Kyungsoo blushed realizing he had forgotten to dress that morning, lost in worrying over the seahorse. “I...just don't know what to do.”

 

Junmyeon sat back beside him. “There's not much to do but let him be, or...How about you let him free. I'm sure he must be lonely in that tank. Let him live out his last days or year in the wild. Maybe he'll be able to find a female and make little seahorses before he goes. Or maybe he'll even live longer in the ocean.”

 

“That's a lot of maybes,” Kyungsoo said and buried his face against the knot that smelled like the ocean and milk, a strange smell that Junmyeon always held, but comforting none the less.

 

Junmyeon reached a hand up and ruffled Kyungsoo's hair. “Life is full of maybes. We can do it tomorrow if you're worried about him getting caught in a fishing net. It's mourning day tomorrow, all the nets have to be pulled out by dawn. Then brother's getting married the day after.”

 

Kyungsoo didn't consider before he agreed. The seahorse had complete trust in his boy. At first, being cupped out of its tank had been scary, but it had learned it was always put back in with the water feeling so much nicer against its scales. It dozed off in its temporary bucket until it felt fresh sunshine unfiltered by windows touching the surface of the water. The seahorse looked about, but could only see his boy's face, downcast and shadowed by a look most displeasing to the seahorse. It felt its tiny heart break, fins swishing with a need to get that baby bright smile back on his boy's face.

 

There was a pier that reached far into the water on the end of the captain's fishing property. Junmyeon stood there already in a wet suit and snorkel. He reached out and took the bucket from Kyungsoo, a sad smile gracing his lips as he looked down at the seahorse as well. For once, the seahorse did not rage at the other human but felt another sadness breaking its heart.

 

“He really has loss energy. I wonder if he even notices it himself,” Junmyeon said then smiled at Kyungsoo. “Say something to him, a farewell.”

 

Kyungsoo stared tight-lipped into the bucket for a few minutes before suddenly reaching a finger in. The seahorse scurried over as fast as it could to caress that soft finger, pressing kisses to it as much as it could, little tail wrapping not wanting to let go and Kyungsoo started to cry.

 

“I'm sorry I put you in a tank, I'm sorry I let you live in captivity. I should have freed you the moment it was safe. I've wasted his life, hyung, I've wasted everyone's lives.”

 

The captain's son held the bucket in one arm and pulled the seahorse's boy into his chest with the other. He shushed Kyungsoo, nose buried in his hair.

 

“No, no you didn't. Your father's business will be fine, it'll sell at a good price before too long. You guys will be fine, my father is your friend. And most importantly, this little guy will be fine, he'll be happy in the sea. So, don't cry, Kyungsoo, don't ever cry.”

 

When the elder boy pulled away and the seahorse caught sight of Kyungsoo's reddened face, trying to keep back tears in his large eyes, there was a skip in its chest and it lost its breath for a moment and it understood. It watched Kyungsoo on the pier until it could no longer see him then watched the other human as he lowered it into the water and shooed it away further into the sea and the seahorse understood.

 

There wasn't much time left.

 

**★**

 

The seahorse was too heartbroken to truly take advantage of the freedom at sea. It had found its love and it was not in the nature of the species to move on from that, but its boy could never love it back in the same way. When the nets were lowered again after the two day rest, the seahorse found itself hidden beneath piers or floating along side the boats where it was safe. And sometimes, the seahorse would try and leave the beach in which it had stayed for years in a small glass case only to be pushed back by the wind or its heart.

 

Months past and the seahorse's fins could barely propel it far into the water as it once again tried to escape its heart, instinct urging it to find another if another could be found. The waves were rougher recently, but they only urged the seahorse to try harder. It was ahead of the boat, passing through the nets it had memorized weeks before also preventing it from becoming another fish's last meal. Ripples formed on the surface of the water and the sea horse slowed looking up at the misty gray sky.

 

A storm.

 

The sea horse turned around intent on going back to the shore and find a small crevice to stay safe from the hard push of waves that were to come, but it was much farther than it had thought. It had gone farther than ever before, farther than where the smaller fishing boats ever passed. Thunder echoed through the water and the seahorse shrunk back. When was the last time he had seen such a bad storm? Only light rain had fallen since he was released and every storm before them he had been covered by the glass tank wrapped in his boy's arms.

 

A large fishing ship passed the seahorse before it could see the crack of lightening signaling another round of thunder. The seahorse peered up at the ship, white metal curved exactly to float on the rough surface of the stormy water. It could see men rushing about on deck, pulling sails, yelling at one another. There was the captain who the seahorse had seen only a few times in Kyungsoo's small hut, but still more than he had seen his boy's own father. And next to the captain were his two sons, a taller boy who looked guiltily at his father and then the boy who often touched Kyungsoo the way the seahorse wished it could. The captain gave them instructions and they both rushed off to opposite sides of the ship.

 

The ocean roared and a harsh wave pushed the sea horse away from the ship. It quickly submerged itself further into the water where the wind couldn't reach and continued to watch the ship. The waves were pushing hard at it, but it was a ship that had floated on this beach for years. Like the other animals of the sea, the seahorse thought it would know how to take cover during the worse of weather. But, the people only continued to rush about the ship and the vessel never made a move to get away, just jerked around on the rough sea.

 

The seahorse poked its head up again to see what was holding the ship from going back home. The smaller boats were no longer in its vision so why this one still? He caught sight of the younger son, the one who held Kyungsoo, arguing with the captain, both awkward on their feet with the heavy rocking of the ship. Lightening crashed and the seahorse sunk back down before thunder could roar. It didn't take long, the noise a loud clash even beneath the water, followed by a splash. The seahorse turned to look. A body fell quickly deeper and deeper into the sea.

 

Swim, the seahorse thought, but the body could only struggle against the waves before going limp. The waves pushed it past the seahorse, milky white fingers grazing its head and the seahorse stopped moving.

 

The boy that held his boy.

 

The seahorse remembered. It remembered every time he had come to Kyungsoo and held him while he cried. It remembered the kiss when they first met leaving his boy flushed and angry. It remembered Kyungsoo's longing gaze on this boy's back and calls of his name in the dead of night muffled by pillows and blankets. It remembered all these things that would never be about it. And the seahorse sighed.

 

With the last bit of strength in its fins, the seahorse swam after the boy and kissed his fingers with a blessing and a prayer.

 

_Take the life I have left and love the boy I never could._

 

The seahorse saw the boy's eyes flutter open and land on it for only a second before he started coughing and reaching for the surface. And as the boy swam up, the seahorse felt itself sinking farther and farther into darkness.

 

**★**

 

Like every morning if he woke early enough, Kyungsoo walked to the beach. After major storms like that last night, there were always many beautiful shells swept up by the monstrous waves and edible animals caught in the tide pulls that would otherwise be hard to catch without a boat and a fishing net. With a child's pail and shovel in his seventeen year old hands and the morning sun just waking enough to greet him over the horizon, Kyungsoo set off for the pretty rarities he could sell to the Chinese family's youngest son and perhaps tonight's meal. Almost immediately, he did find something, a large heap close to Kyungsoo's favorite tide pools. He gasped and rushed over falling to his knees upon seeing the captain's youngest son lying unconscious and wet on the sand.

 

“Hyung, hyung,” he called shaking the other boy.

 

Junmyeon groaned and his eyes fluttered barely seeing Kyungsoo but a blur over him. “Kyungsoo?”

 

Kyungsoo watched Junmyeon's lips tug in a sad attempt at a smile and felt his head. It as burning and Kyungsoo quickly tugged at the soaking jacket and shirt Junmyeon wore. “What happened?”

 

“Got...thrown...washed up. It's cold, Kyungsoo.”

 

Yes indeed. Kyungsoo urged Junmyeon up and struggled to bring him away from the shore leaving his pail and shovel behind, to wash away in the waves when the high tide came again. Junmyeon had a fever. He had heard there was trouble with the ships last night, but nothing more before he went to bed. There was often trouble with the ships but he had never imagined that Junmyeon, the young man he dreamed of every night could have almost died.

 

Kyungsoo's father was out, he often was, trying to scurry up the money for bills as their restaurant still sat unsold. He dropped Junmyeon onto his bed, removed the rest of his clothes and hurried about cocooning him in warm blankets with hot packs and started a warm soup when Junmyeon was conscious enough to eat.

 

It was the next day before Junmyeon could talk properly. He sat up in bed and gestured Kyungsoo who sat under the empty fish tank that he still kept clean though there was no more than a small clam he thought he would try and grow big before eating now. (He had not forgotten about the seahorse in the months it had been let free, but he had tried). Kyungsoo walked over and pulled a chair to Junmyeon's bedside.

 

“Hyung, how are you feeling?”

 

“Chilly. Where you the one that found me?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Junmyeon sighed. “So my father sent out no search party.”

 

“I was up much earlier than a search party could have been, Junmyeon hyung.”

 

Junmyeon smiled at him. “I'm sure you were. I'm glad it was you who found me.”

 

Kyungsoo frowned. He had run into the captain's older brother that morning when going to scavenge for food. He had given Kyungsoo a few gold and told him to take care of his younger brother for a little longer.

 

“Your father is ill as well. It seems the storm didn't agree with him.”

 

Junmyeon tried to laugh, but it ended in a cough. “Stepmother tried to reason him out of going fishing. Obviously there was a storm, but we didn't expect it to be so bad and we didn't expect to go out that far. Father had argued with her for arguing with sister-in-law. My brother has no more affection for her now that he has his young bride, she's younger than us you know. She has not taken it well.”

 

Kyungsoo sighed and reached out to pat Junmyeon's hand. “Rest.”

 

Junmyeon squeezed Kyungsoo's hand and looked up at the ceiling. “I saw it.”

 

“What?”

 

“When I fell off the ship, I saw it.”

 

Kyungsoo chuckled. “Was it a giant squid? A mermaid? Don't try to remember anything you saw under the water.”

 

Junmyeon shook his head. “No, I saw a seahorse.”

 

Seahorse. Kyungsoo's looked toward the tank.

 

“I hit the water and tried to swim up but then everything was dark and I couldn't breath. Then there was the slightest of touch on my wrist and I felt something light shoot into me. My eyes opened and I saw it. Then I was able to swim back to the surface. The waves pushed me to the shore and I passed out.”

 

Kyungsoo sighed. “There is much sea life out there, hyung.”

 

“It was strange, though. I was so far under the water. I should have never been able to reach the surface in time.” Junmyeon turned to Kyungsoo. “Do you think animals pray? Do you think God listens to their prayers?”

 

Kyungsoo blinked owlishly at Junmyeon. “I don't know. If animals can pray then certainly there must be a deity out there that listens to them.”

 

Junmyeon turned away, eyes fluttering closed. “I think your seahorse loved you very much, Kyungsoo.”

 

Kyungsoo slipped his hand from Junmyeon's and covered him with the blankets waiting until the soft breath of sleep could be heard from the captain's youngest son's pale pink lips. He sighed and went to prepare more soup.

 

“I loved it very much as well.”

 

**★**

 

It was another week before Junmyeon could get around Kyungsoo's hut. And by get around, Kyungsoo met getting in his way. When Kyungsoo got home from his small jobs here and there and to ask about his father who was still in the next town searching for work or a buyer, there was Junmyeon splayed across the kitchen floor nibbling on bread with a cup of water by his head and when Kyungsoo asked him what he was doing, Junmyeon would reply with a pout on his handsome face: “This is as far as I can make it today. Help me back to bed Kyungsoo.”

  
  


Of course Kyungsoo did and then Junmyeon would tug on his hand and demand a story or a foot massage or something just as ridiculous. Kyungsoo wondered why he had not thought the captain's youngest son would be so needy. He had always been a clingy guy and one to tease. Making another bowl of soup for Junmyeon, Kyungsoo paused and touched his lips. He could still remember that stolen kiss all those years ago. His only kiss. He would never tell Junmyeon that if he brought it up. That was a secret only between Kyungsoo, his seahorse, and the dead of night as he moaned softly Junmyeon's name. Junmyeon had never brought it up again.

  
  


At least not until Kyungsoo had thought of it.

  
  


“I'm not hungry,” Junmyeon announced when Kyungsoo entered his bedroom with another bowl.

  
  


“You will be,” Kyungsoo said and placed to bowl on the only table in his room, a table he had made quickly from discarded boards he had found outside and brought in as a makeshift side table for the ill Junmyeon.

  
  


Junmyeon chuckled. “I suppose I will. Have you talked to my brother or father recently?”

  
  


Kyungsoo shook his head. “Was there a reason I should? I have heard though that your father is still ill. They do not believe he'll be boarding a ship ever again, but your brother has taken over and there is talk both your stepmother and sister-in-law are pregnant.”

  
  


Junmyeon scoffed. “No doubt by the same man. I did see my brother with stepmother once more just after the wedding. I suppose no matter how much he says he loves his wife he can not escape our stepmother.”

  
  


Kyungsoo stopped stirring the soup and turned to Junmyeon feeling his face and neck. “I think you're well enough to move back to your mansion, Junmyeon. The nurses there will be more helpful than I.”

  
  


Suddenly Junmyeon grabbed Kyungsoo's wrist and kept his hand pressed against his neck.

  
  


“I do not wish to go home, Kyungsoo. I'm not so weak as too need such care,” Junmyeon admitted.

  
  


“I know,” Kyungsoo said and tried to pull his hand away.

  
  


Junmyeon kept a firm hold on his wrist. “And yet you have been putting up with me? Why?”

  
  


Kyungsoo looked away. It was lonely in the hut and, though infuriating, Kyungsoo did not mind the elder's presence.

  
  


“Kyungsoo, run away with me.”

  
  


Kyungsoo looked down at Junmyeon, large eyes doubled in size seeing the seriousness written on Junmyeon's face. “What are you talking about? Such nonsense.”

  
  


“I will ask brother to give me my share in cash and to give your father a place in the kitchen. Without you, your father wouldn't be a liability to a house job, I know you think that. Come away with me.”

  
  


Kyungsoo finally got his hand free and took a step back from the bed. “Why?”

  
  


A soft smile graced Junmyeon's lips. “Because I love you and I can not love you here when prying eyes will urge me to marry the more we are seen together. I am a man, you are one, too. Let us be foolish men and run away from the sea that gives us such sorrow. I was given a second chance by that seahorse and I will not waste it here.”

  
  


Kyungsoo barely heard anything past the confession. It rang in his ears like a waking dream. “You love me?”

  
  


“Is that all you heard?” Junmyeon asked then laughed. “Well that was all you need hear. Yes, indeed I do however wrong others may believe that to be. Do you not love me?”

  
  


“I...” Kyungsoo could not say it. He could not believe this all real. Such fantasies could only exist in his head. Had it not been obvious he would be forced into marriage by some circumstance or stay alone forever.

  
  


“Do you remember that kiss I stole?”

  
  


Kyungsoo could not help but blush at the memory.

  
  


“I did it because I thought you too cute. You were much too young then for more, but as you've grown I have held myself back from touching you more. Has your kiss been given to others the past few years?”

  
  


Should he? Kyungsoo was embarrassed to admit it. “Yes. Many.”

  
  


Junmyeon's eyebrows rose with interest. “And who might those lucky many have been?”

  
  


Kyungsoo swallowed. His voice cracked when he answered. “You.”

  
  


“Me? I do not remember such events and I believe I would have,” Junmyeon laughed.

  
  


“In my dreams,” Kyungsoo admitted.

  
  


Junmyeon reached out and slowly Kyungsoo took his hand letting himself be pulled onto the bed straddling Junmyeon's lap. They were almost the same size, but Kyungsoo knew he must be lighter than Junmyeon with the added weight of those white abs that never seemed to be tanned even when exposed to the sun.

  
  


“You dream of me?” Junmyeon asked. He lifted a hand and touched Kyungsoo's cheek.

  
  


“I admit I do,” Kyungsoo said and tilted his face against that hand.

  
  


“I have a dream of you that I dream many nights,” Junmyeon said and his hand slid from Kyungsoo's face to his neck and trailed along the buttons of Kyungsoo's shirt snapping a few opened. Kyungsoo gasped when white fingers touched his bare skin. “I dream that I steal one more of your firsts multiple times in multiple ways.”

  
  


Kyungsoo chewed on his thick bottom lip and tried to meet Junmyeon's gaze. The elder's eyes were heavy with lust, a look that brought Kyungsoo's bones to boiling in real life more so than he had dreamed.

  
  


“May I take it? May I make love to you, Kyungsoo?”

  
  


“Only,” Kyungsoo started. Junmyeon's hand was very distracting now feeling his still soft chest and stomach through his opened shirt. “Only if you promise we will leave here together.”

  
  


Junmyeon smiled at Kyungsoo, that true angelic smile. His hands moved from Kyungsoo's body back to his face and he brought Kyungsoo's lips only a breath from his own. “I promise, Kyungsoo.”

  
  


Kyungsoo's heart raced and he leaned in eager to steal a kiss of his own. Immediately, Junmyeon gained control and pushed off Kyungsoo's shirt as his tongue searched the younger's eager cavern. Compared to kissing Junmyeon in real life, the kisses Kyungsoo had perfected in his dream had no chance and he was lost in the heat of it. He moved eager hands to Junmyeon's own shirt, pushing it off and broke his lips away from Junmyeon's to kiss that white chiseled chest, sucking a small brown nipple, and licking a path eagerly down those white marble abs.

  
  


“Is this what you dream of doing with me, Kyungsoo?” Junmyeon asked.

  
  


Kyungsoo glared up at the other man and undid his pants. Junmyeon helped remove Kyungsoo's as well and the younger took his place back settled over Junmyeon's lap. Junmyeon's hand rubbed Kyungsoo's hips slowly then moved to Kyungsoo's bottom, cupping both cheeks in his hands. Kyungsoo lifted himself and groaned softly when wet fingers he had not seen Junmyeon prepare, slid to his entrance. One slipped in and Kyungsoo stiffened. Junmyeon looked up at him, measuring his expression as the finger started to move.

 

In reality, Kyungsoo was not knowledged in how men made love. The youngest Chinese son from down the street often talked about his adventures with the doctor of their village, and that was the only way Kyungsoo knew where Junmyeon's flushing red member trapped beneath his thighs would be going, but the fingers, wiggling inside him slowly and with caressing movements, were a surprise. Junmyeon's fingers grazed a spot inside him and Kyungsoo moaned, thick lips parted as the deep melodic sound escaped his small frame.

 

“Get up a bit,” Junmyeon instructed, his voice like a low growl.

 

Kyungsoo obeyed staring down into those kind dark eyes as they looked at the space between their bodies trying to aline everything properly. Kyungsoo waited. He licked his lips and stared and waited trying not to remember all the pleasure of his dreams and fantasies. This would be different. This was real. He felt Junmyeon nudge at his entrance and pushed against it getting the older man's tip past the first couple rings.

 

“Slowly now,” Junmyeon said. “You're not as lubed as I would like you to be.”

 

Kyungsoo nodded and slowly pushed down. It was rough. It stung, but he could feel Junmyeon enter him, the boy he had lusted after since he could lust was inside him and Kyungsoo squeezed his eyes such to urge the pain away. Junmyeon helped by rubbing his hips again then rubbing his member. It felt so much better to have that white hand on Kyungsoo's sensitive flesh than his own. Junmyeon's fingers were delicate but calloused from the boating. They moved in a way that had Kyungsoo quivering around Junmyeon's hard pulsing length inside him. He wondered if this was how Junmyeon pleasured himself in the dead of night. He wanted to see that one day.

 

“Can you move now, Kyungsoo?” Junmyeon asked.

 

“Move?” Kyungsoo responded, breathless.

 

“Lift yourself up and down with your knees.”

 

“Y-you can't do it?”

 

Junmyeon chuckled. “I'm weak, remember?”

 

Kyungsoo would have slapped his bare beautiful chest if he wasn't already aching to feel the sensation of sex. He moved slowly up and down, head tilted toward the ceiling. The friction was rough against his inner walls, but it felt good too. He moaned again, but softer this time, more like a pathetic whine.

 

“That's right, Kyungsoo, just like that.”

 

Giving instructions like that, Kyungsoo thought it was not Junmyeon's first time, but why would it be? Junmyeon was older and gorgeous and Kyungsoo would not blame him as long as he was his now. He moved his hands to Junmyeon's chest and let his nails rake down that beautiful white expanse.

 

“That hurts,” Junmyeon chuckled and pushed his hips up against Kyungsoo's.

 

Kyungsoo gasped and stilled. For a few moments Junmyeon did all the work, bouncing the other on his lap with the force of his needy thrusts until he begged Kyungsoo move once more. He was still weak from the bought with the sea after all. Kyungsoo steadied himself again and moved, going slow as he lifted himself then quickly back down. He was becoming addictive to the friction of Junmyeon's throbbing flesh. He wondered if this was what it felt to ride a boat out in rough waves, exciting. Or was this what the sea felt like caressing the sandy shores? If so, Kyungsoo understood why it kept coming back.

 

“So close, Kyungsoo. Just a bit more,” Junmyeon encouraged.

 

Kyungsoo whined. He felt sweaty and hot and wondered how much more he could take. Junmyeon's hand was still on his member, the other rubbing his hip and he was moving with as much vigor as he could muster inside Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo leaned down and kissed at Junmyeon's jaw then found his lips, shifting his hips around and moving urgently. Junmyeon removed both his hands and replaced them on Kyungsoo's face and in Kyungsoo's hair and kissed back roughly with teeth and tongue.

 

Less experienced, Kyungsoo was sure, he came first, biting Junmyeon's lip a bit too hard and he could taste blood and a hint of salt water he wasn't sure where it came from. Junmyeon came, too, like a hard crash inside him that Kyungsoo easily drowned in. Junmyeon pulled him off and urged Kyungsoo to settle beside him. They stared at each other. Shyly, Kyungsoo lifted a hand and traced that gentle handsome face.

 

“Thank you for not drowning.”

 

Junmyeon chuckled and moved his head to kiss Kyungsoo's wandering fingers. “It is not me you should be thanking.”

 

Kyungsoo smiled then suddenly sat up. He looked toward the fish take with the clam that was not getting any bigger and for a second, he thought he saw the reflection of his seahorse tapping away angrily at the glass as it always did when Junmyeon was in the room. Junmyeon's arm snaked around his waist and pulled him back down, but Kyungsoo kept his eyes on the glass.

 

And he smiled that baby bright smile that captured one tiny sea salt heart.


End file.
